When you consider
how many people have either read the AP news report or read the CNN
news report, it should be presumed that millions of Americans have read
this article along with many of our nation's alleged political leaders.

This story should
be seen as nothing short of an alarm clanging loudly, warning us of
yet another huge national security crisis that is not being addressed.

The Immigration
and Nationality Act (INA) is the all inclusive body of law that pertains
to the entry and presence of aliens in the United States. The INA defines
a passport as being:

“Any travel
document issued by competent authority showing the bearer's origin,
identity, and nationality if any, which is valid for the admission of
the bearer into a foreign country.”

To succinctly explain
the importance of a passport, it is the document that is supposed to
provide proof as to the identity of the bearer. The passport is supposed
to answer the most basic and essential of questions: “Who are
you?”

It is interesting
to note that the definition states that the passport is supposed to
be issued by “competent authority.” That term is used to
make it clear that only an appropriate government official can issue
a passport to make certain that the process has integrity. For the United
States, it is the State Department that has the authority to issue U.S.
Passports and carry out a number of other critically important functions
that relate to foreign policy.

Clearly where the
United States Passport Office is concerned, they should perhaps amend
the definition of passport to reflect that all too often, passports
are issued by incompetent authorities!

What is truly troubling
about the news report is that around the world, the United States passport
had been considered, the “gold standard!” It is also disturbing
that the process is so flawed because our government (and others as
well) have come to use passports for more than determining to admit
aliens seeking entry into countries around the world. Passports in the
United States are used to support applications for employment. A United
States passport provides prima facie evidence that the bearer is a United
States citizen.

A current U.S.
passport opens virtually all of the doors in the United States to the
bearer. A United States passport can be readily used to get a job, gain
access to government buildings, gain access to airports and seaports.
A passport can be used to obtain a driver's license and conduct business
transactions.

A United States
passport is the key to the kingdom! It is considered the sine qua non
of identity documents.

Because United
States passports are considered to be such a reliable proof of the identity
of the bearer, it could provide criminals and terrorists with access
to countries throughout the world if they are able to obtain such a
passport in a false name. Clearly the news report provides evidence
that this possibility is not beyond the realm of possibility! The incompetence
demonstrated repeatedly by our nation's officials at the Passport Office
not only threatens our nation's security and safety, but threatens the
security of nations around the world!

Here are some of
the questions I would love to have the answers to:

1 -
How much training are those whose job is to adjudicate applications
for passports given to help them ferret out altered or counterfeit documents
used in support of passport applications- documents such as birth certificates,
driver's licenses and others that are used to substantiate the identity
of the applicant?

2 -
How much time is each employee given to process an application for a
United States passport?

3 -
How are these employees evaluated? What is their job description? The
point here is to know if they are simply rewarded for moving the applications
as quickly as possible or are they rewarded for uncovering fraud? These
factors determine what the employees' priorities are when they go to
work each day.

4 -
How much effort is made to insure the integrity of the employees is
monitored?

Now, here is the
most important question: Taking the findings of the GAO into account,
starting tomorrow morning- what will change at the United States Department
of State (the parent agency of the Passport Agency)?

When will the State
Department get its act together?

Out of my concerns
for your health, I would suggest that you do not hold your breath while
we wait for “change we can believe in” where the unacceptable
situation at the State Department is concerned!

I noted that the
Department of State has a number of other critical missions to perform
that relate to foreign policy. One of those other responsibilities is
to decide on whether or not to issue visas to aliens. These visas can
be broken into two primary categories: immigrant visas and nonimmigrant
visas. As the terms imply, an immigrant visa is one that is issued to
an alien who seeks to reside permanently in the United States as an
immigrant. Before the lunacy of governmental “Newspeak”
was foisted on our nation where immigration is concerned, such aliens
were described as LAPRs (Aliens Lawfully Admitted for Permanent Residence).
Today many people use the term “PERM” (short for permanent).

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Each and every
year, more than one million aliens are granted LPR status and in so
doing, are placed on the path to United States citizenship. This huge
number of immigrants is greater than all of the other immigrants who
are admitted by all of the other countries of the world combined!

The Department
of State also adjudicates applications for political asylum when such
application is made overseas. One of the embedding tactics of criminals
and terrorists is to claim political asylum. A glaring example of this
can be found in the case of a Pakistani national by the name of Mir
Amir Kansi who applied for political asylum and apparently lied on a
number of critical issues addressed by Kansi in his application. Notwithstanding
those lies which constituted fraud, Kansi's application was approved.
He demonstrated his appreciation for our nation by driving to the gates
of the CIA in Virginia on a winter morning in January, 1993 with an
AK-47. Then, as cars filled with CIA employees headed towards those
gates of America's intelligence agency, Kansi calmly opened fire on
those cars, killing two CIA officers and wounding three others.

He managed to flee
the scene of the shooting and leave the United States. A worldwide search
resulted in his capture and arrest. He was returned to the United States
where he stood trial and was found guilty of murder. He was executed
for the murders of those CIA officers but his execution did not bring
those people he killed back to life. His execution did not undo the
harm done to the others whom he shot.

In fairness, the
adjudication of Kansi's application was carried out by the former INS,
another agency with a terrible track record and the one I most often
write about. However, what should be remembered was that the terrorists
who have attacked our nation have all managed, in one way or another,
to manipulate the visa process and the immigration benefits program.
Those processes are under the jurisdiction of the State Department and
the components of DHS that had previously been under the INS.

Here is something
else to consider: With all of the talk about how the politicians in
Washington want to implement Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR),
here is yet another glaring example of why such legislation would do
nothing except pose a huge threat to national security!

The incompetence,
ineptitude and corruption that has come to pass for “Business
as usual” within the bureaucracy of our government makes it abundantly
clear that our federal agencies lack the ability to carry out their
most fundamental and rudimentary duties. So, while I oppose any sort
of mass amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens currently residing
in our country, lets go back to reason one why this lunacy must not
be foisted on us or our nation by the “Fools on the Hill”
(Congress)- Our government lacks the ability to even know who they are
dealing with!

Each day that passes
without meaningful changes to the system to restore integrity to these
processes represent yet another day that terrorists and criminals may
gain entry into our country and embed themselves in communities around
the country.

Each day that passes
without meaningful change threatens the security of the United States
and the security of other nations because of the ineptitude and failings
of our officials.

We the People need
to take every opportunity to confront those who were elected to represent
us and make it clear that if they fail to represent us, we will find
someone who will!

The Congress is
supposed to represent the will of the American people. Under our system
of government, Congress has clearly defined oversight authority. When
the system fails it is the Congress that is supposed to demand the necessary
changes! That is the reason that the GAO (General Accountability Office)
exists: to conduct investigations to enable Congress to know what is
or is not being done.

The large scale
apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected
representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American
citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes
to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much
that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely
must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

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The collective
failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known
to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority
of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.

I implore you to
get involved!

We live in a perilous
world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives
of our citizens hang in the balance. This is neither a Conservative
issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly
an AMERICAN issue!

Michael
W. Cutler graduated from Brooklyn College of the City University of New
York in 1971 with a B.A. in Communications Arts and Sciences. Mr. Cutler
began working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in
October 1971 when he entered on duty as an Immigration Inspector assigned
to John F. Kennedy International Airport. In August 1975 he became a Criminal
Investigator (Special Agent) for the INS at NYC.

He rotated through
virtually every squad in the Investigations Branch. From 1988 until 1991
he was assigned as the INS representative to the Unified Intelligence
Division (UID) of the DEA in New York. In 1991 he was promoted to the
position of Senior Special Agent and was assigned to the Organized Crime,
Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) which required that he work with
members of other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF,
U.S. Customs and local and state police as well as law enforcement organizations
of other countries including Israel, Canada, Great Britain and Japan,
to conduct investigations of aliens involved in major drug trafficking
organizations. He retired from the INS in February 2002, after a career
that spanned some 30 years.

Finally, Michael
Cutler has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including
Lou Dobbs, Fox News, MSNBC and many other television and radio news-oriented
programs to discuss the enforcement of immigration laws.